Dancing with the Zapatistas

Overview

During my time at The Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics, I was tasked with translating a number of physical books into digital books on the Scalar Digital Publishing platform.

My Role

I worked as the front end developer on a team of two. I made the book manuscript web ready, coded the site with html, css and javascript as applicable. I also edited photos when necessary.

Tools

Scalar Digital Publishing Platform, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and Sublime Text.

Challenges

Physical books are costly to produce and distribute. These limitations may hinder the book's availability to reach a wide audience. They also encourage linear storytelling, which may hinder the author's creativity in favor of optimizing readability.

Resolution

Making books available digitally can open up access for people who may otherwise have been unable to locate a physical copy of a book. It also cuts down on costs for authors, such as the academics that I worked with, who may not have the funding to make their work available to a wide audience. Digital books also allow for greater storytelling flexibility. Scalar’s platform allows you to follow a book along different “paths,” letting the reader experience the text in a non-linear fashion. This can be done using physical books as well but the experience is clunky, requiring the reader to flip back and forth through the pages. Digital books allow for simple clicks to guide the reader through and the sidebar allows quick access to any area of the book, at anytime.